Displaying a contextual organization chart with awareness

ABSTRACT

A contextual organization chart based on two selected individuals is constructed from a database of individual names, manager names, and profiles. Awareness data is provided for people in the organization, a people awareness indicator and a nesting control indicator are appended to names in the constructed view. A user may access profile data by selecting a name in the view, expand the view to show additional individuals by selecting a nesting control indicator, or initiate a communication with an individual by selecting an awareness indicator.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to presenting organizationalstructure information to a computer user. In particular the inventionrelates to a method and system for graphically displaying anorganization chart including two individuals and their relativerelationship within an organization along with profile, awareness,communication and nesting indicators for individuals on the chart.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Various application programs provide a computer user information aboutthe reporting structure of an organization in a graphical ororganization chart format. For example, Robertson et al. in U.S. PatentPublication 2002/0030703 A1 describe creating and displaying a visualhierarchy of data objects. The objects may be individuals in anorganization. The display of an object or person within a firsthierarchy can be gradually transformed or morphed into the display ofthe same object or person within a second hierarchy. Techniques aredescribed to morph between first and second hierarchies.

Lowry, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,617 describes rendering a hierarchicalgraphical listing or chart on a display. Further information may beretrieved from a database record leaving plural fields by selecting anode on the chart.

McFarlane et al., in U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0111887 A1 describeusing an organization chart to provide summary reports of employeeonline activity. The summary reports include information on the employeeas well as all other employees under the employee in the companyorganizational structure.

Other programs are available for drawing an organization chart using‘drag and drop’ techniques or to create charts based on targetindividuals. The publication “Organization Charting Software” byAdvanced Personnel Systems, P.O. Box 1438, Roseville, Calif. 95648 dated2002 describes such programs.

Yasutaka also describes in Japanese patent abstract 08329156A, a devicefor preparing an organization chart by decoding hierarchical parametersin an organization plan data base.

Hess, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,867 describes an interactive computerdisplay system for manipulating a hierarchy of information. Ahierarchical arrangement of information is constructed with a minimum ofsteps and errors.

The abstract of Japanese patent 2001350883A to Okura Osamu describes anorganization chart processor for displaying an organization chart on thescreen of a display device. A user may input a ‘movement’ causing theprocessor to update the contents of a personnel database. Also anofficial announcement of the change is prepared, printed, and stored ina history file.

Masahiro describes in Japanese patent abstract 08329156A, anorganization chart processor that prepares an organization chart in atree structure from data in an employee master file. The processor alsoreads out an employee's face photograph from a face photograph file orother personal information from the employee master file and displaysthese on the organization chart.

Computer users in hierarchical organizations such as industrialcompanies, service organizations, educational organizations, non-profitcompanies, and the like frequently want to understand how a particularindividual in their organization relates to themselves on theorganization chart. Answering this question is a difficult process withall of the above described systems and methods, requiring multiplesearches or scrolling up and down management chains. The larger theorganization, the more difficult the task becomes because only a smallpart of the overall organization chart may be viewed on a computerscreen at any given time. A system which rapidly and easily shows therelationship between only two individuals in an organization wouldtherefore constitute a significant advancement in the art.

In addition to showing the relationship between two individuals, a usertypically wishes to learn more about the second individual as well asthose in their respective and common manager chains. It is therefore adesirable feature to have the ability to easily request individualprofile data or graphics, photograph, or the like for any suchindividual by merely clicking on an individual name, or an icon, orselection button associated with an individual name. For example, in theLowry patent listed above one may request additional information byselecting a node on a hierarchical chart.

Recently presence technology systems and methods have been developed.For example, Cuomo et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,328, describe providinginformation to a target user about other users in an online environment.The target user is informed as other users enter or leave the networkedenvironment. The target user may be notified through use of a list whereother users' names appear or change color as they log onto or off of thenetwork. An audio signal may also be used to alert the target user toanother user's change in status. U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,328 is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

Instant messaging systems such as SAMETIME® product (SAMETIME is atrademark of IBM Corporation) provided by IBM Corporation of Armonk,N.Y. include such a presence information display in a window on a user'scomputer screen.

In addition to a person's on-line status, presence technology asdescribed by Lisa Guernsey in the New York Times article “You Can Surf,but You Can't Hide” dated Feb. 7, 2002, may also show whether anotherperson's phone is in use, or for a cellular telephone, whether it iseven turned on. According to Guernsey, presence technology is also beingconsidered for hand-held computers, wireless Web pads, communicationsystems in cars, or nearly any wired or wireless device of the futureincluding household appliances or exercise machines at the gym. Someplanned systems will use tracking systems like the Global PositioningSystem (GPS) to detect the location of a person who is logged on.

Glenn et al. describe, in U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0021307 A1, amethod of displaying a presence indicator if a user is connected to aninterconnection fabric. The method also provides for initiating aninstantaneous communication interface to an initiating user when thepresence indicator is selected and the receiving user is connected tothe interconnection fabric.

It would therefore be a highly desirable and inventive feature if thedesired relationship chart above could include presence informationabout the second individual and those in their respective and commonmanager chains. Furthermore it would be highly desirable if the firstindividual could establish communication with any of those persons onthe relationship chart by selecting a presence indicator associated withthat individual.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to enhancethe art of displaying hierarchical organizational structure by providinga method with enhanced capability.

It is another object to provide such a method wherein enhanced andsimplified operational capabilities are possible.

It is a further object to provide such a method which can beinexpensively distributed and easily operated by a wide variety ofcomputer users.

It is yet another object to provide a system for implementing such acapability in a facile manner.

These and other objects are attained in accordance with one embodimentof the invention wherein there is provided a method of presenting anorganization structure, comprising the steps of providing a database ofnames of individuals in an organization, each of the individual nameshaving an associated manager name and a profile, providing peopleawareness data for each of the individuals in the organization,selecting a first and a second individual from the organization withoutrequiring multiple searches, constructing a view showing the managerchain of the first and second individuals up to the point where there isa common manager and then a single manager chain to a higher levelmanager in the organization, appending an indicator of the peopleawareness data and a nesting control indicator to names in the view, anddisplaying the view on a computer screen wherein a user may access theprofile by selecting a name in the view, initiate a communication withan individual by selecting the people awareness indicator, or expand heview by selecting said nesting control indicator.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention there is provideda system for presenting an organization structure, comprising a databaseof names of individuals in an organization, each of said individualnames having an associated manager name and a profile, people awarenessdata in the database for each of the individuals in the organization,means for constructing a view showing the manager chain of a first and asecond individual up to the point where there is a common manager andthen a single manager chain to a higher level manager in theorganization without requiring multiple searches, means for appending anindicator of the people awareness data and a nesting control indicatorto names in the view, a computer screen for displaying said view, andmeans for allowing a user to access the profile by selecting a name inthe view, initiate a communication with an individual by selecting thepeople awareness indicator, or expand said view by selecting the nestingcontrol indicator.

In accordance with yet another embodiment of the invention there isprovided a computer program product for instructing a processor topresent an organization structure, comprising a computer readablemedium, first program instruction means for providing a database ofnames of individuals in an organization, each of the individual nameshaving an associated manager name and a profile, second programinstruction means for providing people awareness data for each of theindividuals in said organization, third program instruction means forselecting a first and a second individual from the organization withoutrequiring multiple searches, fourth program instruction means forconstructing a view showing the manager chain of the first and secondindividuals up to the point where there is a common manager and then asingle manager chain to a higher level manager in the organization,fifth program instruction means for appending an indicator of the peopleawareness data to a nesting control indicator to names in the view, andsixth program instruction means for displaying the view on a computerscreen wherein a user may access the profile by selecting a name in theview, initiate a communication with an individual by selecting thepeople awareness indicator, or expand said view by selecting saidnesting control indicator, and wherein all of the program instructionmeans are recorded on the medium.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of steps comprising a method of presenting anorganization structure in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an organization chart showing relationship between twoindividuals;

FIG. 3 is the organization chart of FIG. 2 with an expanded view;

FIG. 4 is an organization chart in which the two individuals residewithin a single manager chain;

FIG. 5 shows an organization chart where additional information has beenrequested; and

FIG. 6 is a system in accordance with the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

For a better understanding of the present invention, together with otherand further objects, advantages and capabilities thereof, reference ismade to the following disclosure and the appended claims in connectionwith the above-described drawings. In the following description,numerous specific details are given to provide a better description ofthe present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled inthe art that the present invention may be practical without all of thespecific details. In other instances, well known details have not beendescribed in detail so as not to obscure the facts of the presentinvention. Where an item appears in more than one drawing, that item hasthe same number label in all drawings in which it appears as iscustomary.

In FIG. 1 there is shown flowchart 10 depicting one method of presentingan organization structure in accordance with the present invention. Step12 provides a database of names of individuals in an organization. Thedatabase may be any type of database such as a hierarchical database, arelational database, a spreadsheet database or any other type ofdatabase. The database may be stored on any type of media known forstoring data such as hard drive, floppy diskette, zip diskette, magnetictape, CD or DVD ROM, or the like. It may also be stored in an electronicmemory device such as a static or dynamic RAM, a flash memory, a PROM,ROM, EPROM or EEPROM or any type of memory device.

The specific organization of names of individuals within the database isof no consequence to the present invention provided that each individualname has an associated manager name and a profile. Neither theassociated manager name, nor the profile needs to be stored in the samedatabase as the individual name, provided that each can be retrievedfrom wherever stored and associated with the respective individual name.Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that such anassociation can be made regardless of where the individual name, managername, and profile are stored, even if stored at a remote location.

The profile may include various data pertaining to the individualincluding, work location, job title, a photograph, or any other datarelated to the individual. The profile may also be partially orcompletely blank if no such data is available, or if for some reasonsuch as privacy or security, such data is not available for thatparticular individual.

In step 14 people awareness data is provided for the individuals whosenames are in the database of step 12. This data may include whether anindividual is logged on to a network, whether the individual isavailable to receive an instant message, whether the individual's cellphone is turned on, whether the cell phone, office phone, home phone, orany other phone is in use and the number the phone is connected to, theregistered owner of that number, whether the individual has ageographical position device such as a GPS (global positioning system)device and the location of that device, whether the individual has a webpage displayed on a computer screen and an identification of that page,and whether the individual has a video or digital camera active, and thecurrent video stream or image being captured by the camera. Because ofprivacy concerns, the individual may choose whether to allow such datato be provided or not and data indicating such choices may also beprovided or not.

Awareness data may be provided, for example, by running an instantapplication or any other application or combination of applicationshaving awareness capability. Data for particular individuals in the viewdescribed below is extracted from the applications and provided for usein step 20 below. An application may, for example, track an individual'sonline status and provide updated awareness data as the status changes.

Awareness data may be stored in the same database as the profile data.However, awareness data may also be stored in a different database, orat a different location including remote locations.

In step 16 a user selects first and second individuals from anorganization. In one embodiment, one of these individuals is the userhimself and the other individual is the person to whom the user wishesto understand his organizational relationship and to learn more about.The selecting of a first and second individual can be done withoutrequiring multiple searches, and in some embodiments, requiring nosearch at all. For instance, previous searches, or individualspreviously viewed may be stored in, e.g., a cache. In embodiments, thecached names can appear without the use of a search, or with only asingle search, allowing the user to select names without searching forthe desired individuals.

In step 18 a view is constructed showing the manager chain of the firstand second chosen individuals proceeding upward in the organizationuntil a common manager is reached, and thereafter a single manager chainup to a higher or highest level manager in the organization. Such afocused view of an organization chart shows only the connected pieces ofthe hierarchy that are specifically of interest. This compact display ofthe manager chains for two individuals and the point they intersect canfit easily on a computer or PDA (personal digital assistant} screen,regardless of the size of the organization.

FIG. 2 shows an example 50 of such a view. Chris Walker and CarolJohnson 42 are the two individuals selected in steps 16. Manager chains30 and 40 respectively intersect with common manager Ted Smith. Fromthese a single manager chain is shown.

In step 20 an awareness indicator and nesting control indicator isappended to each name in the view. The awareness indicator shows some orall of the people awareness data provided in step 14. For example, thesquare box 32 in FIG. 2 appended to Chris Walker indicates that Chris iscurrently on line and available to receive an instant message. Round dot48 appended to Marilyn Morse by contrast indicates that Marilyn islogged on but away from her workstation and therefore not available toreceive an instant message. Any type of indicator shape, color, size, ora plurality of indicators may be used depending on the presence dataavailable for the particular individual, including no indicator if nodate is available. The indicator may be appended before or after theindividual's name and may be displayed in the view in any proximity tothe name provided it is clear and unambiguous which indicator isassociated with which individual name.

A nesting control indicator such as indicator 47 of FIG. 3 is alsoappended to Carol Johnson 42. The user can expand the view if he wishesto see more of the hierarchy. Any type of indicator may be usedincluding the commonly used plus and minus signs as depicted in FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 shows the view 60 for a case where both individuals reside in asingle manager chain.

In step 22, the view constructed in steps 18 and 20 is displayed on acomputer or PDA screen. Any type of display device may be used. Examplesinclude CRT (cathode ray tube}, LCD (liquid crystal display), plasmadisplay, projection display, and the like. In addition to FIGS. 2-4,FIG. 5 also shows an example of such a view 70. A profile 72 may beselected for any or all individuals in the view.

The user may initiate a communication with an individual in the view byselecting the awareness indicator associated with that person 32. Thecommunication may comprise an instant message, an e-mail, a telephonecall, a video session, still picture communication, or screen session. Ascreen session allows the individual associated with the selectedawareness indicator to see on his display screen whatever the user hasdisplayed on the user's screen.

For example, selecting awareness indicator 32 may provide the associatedindividual's name e.g. Chris Walker in FIG. 2, to an instant messagingapplication which provided awareness in step 14. Selecting awarenessindicator 32 may also drive that application to open a chat session withChris Walker. Other awareness applications providing data in step 14 maybe driven by selecting awareness indicator 32 to initiate the othertypes of communication listed above, depending on the particularcharacteristics of the awareness application.

In step 24 of FIG. 1 such a communication is initiated by the user byselecting an awareness indicator in the view.

In FIG. 6 there is shown a system 80 for presenting an organizationstructure in accordance with the present invention. Database 82 hastherein names of individuals in an organization. Each of the individualnames has an associated manager name to which that individual reports,and a profile 86 as described above.

People awareness data 84 is also included in database 82. In otherembodiments, awareness data 84 may be located in a different database asnoted above.

Processor 90 has access to database 82 via path 94 which may be anetwork connection of any type including LAN (local area 25 network),WAN (wide area network), dial up I modem connection, fiber optic link,wireless, infrared connection, or the like. Database 82 may also becompletely stored within processor 90 such as on a hard drive, floppydrive, diskette, zip drive, CD (compact disk), or DVD (digital videodisk). In this case connection 94 may be a databus within processor 90.

Display screen 88 is attached to processor 90 through connection 92which is any type of connection known for such use.

Processor 90 includes means for constructing the manager chain viewdescribed above. For example, processor 90 may have a computer programor set of instructions stored in a memory device and an electronicdevice for processing the instructions to construct the view.

Processor 90 has similar means for appending an indicator of respectiveawareness data 84 to individuals in the view. Processor 90 also hasmeans for appending a nesting control indicator to the individual names.The constructed view may be sent to screen 88 to be displayed.

Processor 90 also has means for allowing a user to access profiles 86 byselecting a name in the view, for example, by using a selecting devicesuch as a mouse, trackball, keyboard, or other selection device.

Processor 90 has means for a user to initiate a communication with anindividual by selecting a people awareness indicator in the view. Thecommunication may operate by sending data, voice, or video, whether indigital, analog, or mixed form over a communication path 96 which may beany type of interconnection between communicating devices, includingthose listed above for connection 94.

Processor 90 also includes means for a user to expand the view byselecting a nesting control indicator. An expanded view, for example asshown in FIG. 3, may involve showing additional individuals in theorganization. Processor 90 obtains data for such an expanded view byaccessing database 82 over path 94.

While there have been shown and described what are at present consideredthe professed embodiments of the invention, it will be obvious to thoseskilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be madetherein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined bythe appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of presenting an organization structure,comprising the steps of: providing a database of names of individuals inan organization, each of said individual names having an associatedmanager name and a profile; providing people awareness data for each ofsaid individuals in said organization; selecting a first and a secondindividual from said organization without requiring a search, saidselecting including: displaying a list of names, said list of namesincluding only names having been previously viewed by a user during aprevious search or a distinct user during a previous search,automatically selecting the user as the first individual, and selectingat least one of said names from said list of names as the secondindividual; constructing a view showing names of those in a managerchain of said first and second individuals, every name in the managerchain being a name of at least one of the first individual, the secondindividual or a manager of either of the first or second individual upto the point where there is a common manager, and then a single managerchain to at least one manager at a higher level than the common managerin said organization, wherein the single manager chain showing onlymanager names above the common manager, wherein the constructing isconfigured to construct the view from any first and second individual insaid organization regardless of whether the first and second individualshare a common immediate manager; appending an indicator of said peopleawareness data and a nesting control indicator to names in said view;and displaying said view on a computer screen wherein the user mayaccess said profile by selecting a name in said view, initiate acommunication with an individual by selecting said people awarenessindicator, or expand said view by selecting said nesting controlindicator, wherein the profile is displayed in proximity to therespective name in the view, and wherein the profile includes at least:a job title and a work location.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein saidprofile includes contact information, or skills, or backgroundinformation for said individual.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein saidpeople awareness data includes whether said individual has a workstationlogged on, or whether said individual is active at said logged onworkstation.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said manager chain ofsaid first individual is shown beside said manager chain of said secondindividual in a wishbone pattern.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein saidsingle manager chain is extended upward to the highest level manager insaid organization.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said nestingcontrol indicator is a common plus or minus nesting control indicator.7. The method of claim 1, wherein said communication is an instantmessage, or an on-line chat, or an e-mail.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising the step of expanding said view by selecting saidnesting control indicator to show additional individuals reporting tothe individual name selected.
 9. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising the step of scrolling said expanded view to view saidadditional individuals.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the list ofnames previously viewed by the user is stored in a cache, and the listof names stored in the cache is provided without a current search.
 11. Asystem for presenting an organization structure, comprising: a databaseof names of individuals in an organization, each of said individualnames having an associated manager name and a profile; people awarenessdata in said database for each of said individuals in said organization;means for displaying a list of names without requiring a search, saidlist of names including only names having been previously viewed by auser during a previous search or a distinct user during a previoussearch, the user being automatically selected as a first individual, andmeans for allowing the user to select at least one of said names fromsaid list of names as a second individual; means for constructing a viewshowing names of those in a manager chain of the first and secondindividuals, every name in the manager chain being a name of at leastone of the first individual, the second individual or a manager ofeither of the first or second individual up to the point where there isa common manager, and then a single manager chain to at least onemanager at a higher level than the common manager in said organization,wherein the single manager chain showing only manager names above thecommon manager, wherein the constructing is configured to construct theview from any first and second individual in said organizationregardless of whether the first and second individual share a commonimmediate manager; a computer screen for displaying said view; and meansfor allowing the user to access said profile by selecting a name in saidview, initiate a communication with an individual by selecting saidpeople awareness indicator, or expand said view by selecting saidnesting control indicator, wherein the profile is displayed in proximityto the respective name in the view, and wherein the profile includes atleast: a job title and a work location.
 12. The system of claim 11,wherein said profile includes contact information, or skills, orbackground information for said individual.
 13. The system of claim 11,wherein said people awareness data includes whether said individual hasa workstation logged on, or whether said individual is active at saidlogged on workstation.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein said singlemanager chain is extended upward to the highest level manager in saidorganization.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein said manager chain ofsaid first individual is shown beside said manger chain of said secondindividual in a wishbone pattern.
 16. The system of claim 11, whereinsaid nesting control indicator is a common plus or minus nesting controlindicator.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein said communication is aninstant message, or an on-line chat, or an e-mail.
 18. The system ofclaim 11, wherein said view is expanded to show additional individualsreporting to the individual name selected.
 19. The system of claim 11,further comprising means for scrolling said expanded view to view saidadditional individuals.
 20. A non-transitory computer readable mediumwherein program instruction means are recorded on the medium forinstructing a processor to present an organization structure,comprising: first program instruction means for providing a database ofnames of individuals in an organization, each of said individual nameshaving an associated manager name and a profile; second programinstruction means for providing people awareness data for each of saidindividuals in said organization; third program instruction means forselecting a first and a second individual from said organization withoutrequiring a search, said selecting including: displaying a list ofnames, said list of names including only names having been previouslyviewed by a user during a previous search or a distinct user during aprevious search, automatically selecting the user as the firstindividual, and selecting at least one of said names from said list ofnames as the second individual; fourth program instruction means forconstructing a view showing names of those in a manager chain of saidfirst and second individuals, every name in the manager chain being aname of at least one of the first individual, the second individual or amanager of either of the first or second individual up to the pointwhere there is a common manager, and then a single manager chain to atleast one manager at a higher level than the common manager in saidorganization, wherein the single manager chain showing only managernames above the common manager, wherein the constructing is configuredto construct the view from any first and second individual in saidorganization regardless of whether the first and second individual sharea common immediate manager; fifth program instruction means forappending an indicator of said people awareness data and a nestingcontrol indicator to names in said view; and sixth program instructionmeans for displaying said view on a computer screen wherein a user mayaccess said profile by selecting a name in said view, initiate acommunication with an individual by selecting said people awarenessindicator, or expand said view by selecting said nesting controlindicator, wherein the profile is displayed in proximity to therespective name in the view, and wherein the profile includes at least:a job title and a work location; and wherein all of said programinstruction means are recorded on said medium.